Mar 17, 2011 02:05
Though five days without bathing was hardly unusual for Rita, she was actually looking forward to showering today. To her, the last shift had been somewhat enjoyable, if only because it allowed her an opportunity to be alone with her thoughts for a bit. Of course, she couldn't be completely alone in the communal showers, but no one was rude enough
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leela,
kirk,
s.t.,
klavier,
badd,
anise,
sam winchester,
indiana jones,
firo,
zex,
niikura,
taura,
franziska,
claire bennet,
kinomoto sakura,
peter parker,
snow,
lunge,
lana skye,
ruby,
mello,
the flash,
roxas,
stefan,
peter petrelli,
mele,
tear,
damon,
two-face,
ritsuka,
rapunzel,
erika,
edgar,
canada,
tifa,
the scarecrow,
hijikata,
matt,
maya,
okita,
battler,
zack,
kratos,
l,
shinji,
carter,
kenshin,
bella,
scott pilgrim,
aigis,
izaya,
ax,
claire littleton,
sora,
gren,
rei,
woody,
claude,
dean winchester,
byrne,
guy,
kairi,
venom,
nigredo,
kibitoshin,
lightning,
rita,
castiel,
celty,
trickster,
ippo,
sasuke,
aidou,
claire stanfield,
edward cullen,
captain jack
Not only that, but it didn't add up. If it was a monster of some kind, wouldn't it have hurt her? Or tried to. There were too many questions and none of them synced up with the things she'd seen and what she knew had been real. Or, had known, anyway. So, there was a little bit of a lilt in her voice that gave way to the fact that it bothered her, but aside from that, she kept it level and instead investigative -- suspicious, really. Obviously something wasn't right, but it had at least been a good imitation.
"Peter, I think I know the difference between a monster and my uncle," she defended automatically. "It didn't just look like you, okay? He -- it -- whatever it was, it was you. It talked like you, not in some creepy warped voice like that mirror monster did. It knew things you know." Okay … more like responded in the ways she expected him too. Most of it had admittedly been her blurting things out and apologizing and …
Oh, man. She was gonna have to go through that all over again wasn't she? Her pride reflexively winced at the thought. On the bright side, though, it could wait until after they solved this mystery.
"Unless this Aguilar guy has a Peter clone running around as part of his menagerie of monsters, it just doesn't make sense. I'm telling you, I know the difference, okay? It's not like I'd just automatically assume it was you just because --" Just because it looked exactly like him and who the hell else could it be? The mirror monster hadn't even come to mind. Shapeshifting was so far out of her spectrum of believability that it seemed stupid to think a monster might be capable of it, and truth be told, she felt a little stupid for not considering it.
She slouched a little in defeat, though there was still a stubborn frown on her face that didn't want to admit she should have been more careful. Sylar, a monster -- all the more reason to never make the mistake of hauling off to Peter's room again. "It knew about Sylar. It knew to warn me that he was in your hallway." There was an edge of 'which, by the way, you never told me' to her tone but she kept that implied at least.
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He had to admit to himself that while he had heard of monsters who could take on the form of friends, he'd never interacted with one himself. Which was definitely a good thing; if he'd come across a fake Nathan or something like that, it would have gotten him into a world of trouble. But since he hadn't ever encountered one, he couldn't vouch for how realistic they were or how much they knew.
Claire seemed pretty sure that it had to be more than a mere monster, though, and so Peter was going to do his best to hear her out. That answer had been the simplest one, but if it couldn't be true then they would just have to work out other options.
All in all, it was creepy to hear that there was something out there that could imitate him so well in the first place, so part of him was hoping that it wasn't an actual entity. Still, his hopes would only get him so far, and in reality they needed to get to the bottom of this in case it happened again. The last thing Peter wanted was for something with his face to harm his niece because they hadn't been careful enough.
"Look, Claire, don't blame yourself for not knowing or anything. I'm betting it was pretty convincing, so there's no point in beating yourself up about it. If it wasn't a monster, though, then what are you thinking? Could it have been a hallucination?" Not that he was accusing her of being nuts, but this place had a way of making you see or experience things without them actually happening. He'd been convinced that he was dying one night only to wake up perfectly fine, so it definitely seemed possible.
"Something weird was going on with me last night, too. I wasn't seeing things, but still... maybe that's what happened to you." The whole hint about Sylar was totally missed for the moment, mainly because Peter was still unsettled that he had a double that was possibly still out there.
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At least she managed to keep the frustration mostly out of her expression. Mostly. Her jaw still clenched and her lower lip still quivered furiously. The wiser part of her told her that she should probably be prying to find out what was so weird that had happened to Peter to get him this injured and put him in a wheelchair, but she was kind of distracted by how deep she was letting his doubt dig.
"I don't know what it was, but I'm not crazy and I wasn't seeing things. I wasn't just walking around talking to thin air, okay. I touched it. It was real." She wasn't going to acknowledge the fact that the hallucination up in the experiments hall had felt real, too, or that Pete's had felt real, or that it was totally possible. Because why would Landel or Aguilar or whoever was supposed to be in charge now make her hallucinate a perfectly normal(-ish) night? It hadn't attacked her, it hadn't left her emotional state in shambles, it was just …
It didn't add up. And she wasn't going to budge on it, either.
"I'm not blaming myself, I'm telling you that something seriously messed up has to be going on for you to seriously have some kind of freaky doppelganger hanging around." The frustration had her still fuming but she forced it down, her cheeks puffing a bit from the effort, in order to let that segue her into what she knew she needed to ask. "What happened to you that was so weird?" Even if it wasn't hallucination doppelganger monster freak material, it could at least maybe shed some light on the situation.
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What it left them with was one big question mark and a whole lot of uncertainty. Not a monster, not a vision -- what else was there? Peter knew that the existence of powers meant that there were a lot of options, but that just made it harder to narrow down. Either way, they weren't just going to come up with the answer, especially when Claire was being difficult. He decided to drop it.
"All right," he said, lifting his hands up in defeat and then immediately regretting it when it caused his back to twinge in heated pain. He lowered his head to hide his wince and then quickly recovered. "If there really is a doppelganger running around, then we need to be more careful. We've got to have some sort of code word so that we can identify each other." It sounded ridiculous, like something out of a movie, and yet it was the best way to be sure. He was going to leave it to Claire to come up with something, since a teenager was more likely to find the prospect exciting.
Though then Claire asked the question that he'd more or less invited her to ask, which meant it was time to spill. Peter wasn't sure what the best way to explain was, but he'd just be honest. "Well, I ended up like this," he started with a small gesture to the wheelchair, "because for some reason, I couldn't feel any pain last night." He realized what he was saying and what it would mean to Claire, but she needed to know. "It made me kind of careless, since I was traveling with two kids and I wanted to keep them safe. We were attacked by a brainwashed patient."
He was definitely paying for it now, but he still thought he'd done the right thing. None of them had come out of that fight completely unscathed (except for Albedo, maybe), but at least he'd taken the brunt of the injuries.
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Luckily, the idea of a code word was distracting her a little. It sounded stupid -- okay, she was probably biased about that for obvious reasons, but she was positive it would sound stupid even if she weren't just being a grouch. They weren't in some ridiculous spy movie, this was real life and they had real issues and the fact that they had spare Peters running around was just the cherry on top of a miserable situation.
But pessimism wasn't going to help anyone. So, she tried to be compliant.
"You seriously want me to quiz you on a code word every time I see you. You don't think that'll get, you know, annoying?" And unnecessary. And humiliating and a constant reminder of her failure to even realize it wasn't him. That one was definitely digging deep. But she stopped her train of questions when she processed the information about him not feeling pain.
Her first thought was that it wasn't just her anymore. Maybe somehow by taking her ability in Peter had lost his capabilities to feel pain too and it was another freak part of her mutated genes. But, then he said it was just for last night, implying that he could feel it again. While she wasn't exactly sure how he'd test something like that during the day -- maybe he stubbed his toe, for all she knew -- she couldn't help feeling a little deflated. So much for that theory, because as far as she knew, she didn't have an easier time in the daylight.
"Like me," she clarified, the confusion returning, though her frustrated mood had definitely put a harsher, more doubtful edge on it. "And it just … happened? But you couldn't heal, that doesn't make any sense." Because somehow, not being able to feel pain just because she could heal made more? As if.
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"Maybe it will be annoying, but it's better than you running into this double again and getting hurt this time." For all they knew, whatever it was that had taken on his form was just waiting for the perfect moment, and there was no way that Claire could let her guard down now. If it had really seemed that much like him, then they couldn't assume that she'd be able to tell the difference without having a fail-safe -- hence, code word.
"I just want to make sure you stay safe," he reinforced, leaning forward slightly and ignoring the pain that came with the movement. "If that means code words, then let's do it." And he wasn't going to accept some argument about how she didn't need to worry about being safe because she could heal. There were all sorts of other ways that an attack of that nature could be damaging, after all.
As for what he'd revealed about the night before, it was hard to tell how Claire felt about it. Maybe that was because she didn't quite know herself. It might have made sense if they'd been near each other when it had happened or if he'd gotten the healing with it, but maybe it was just a matter of his powers acting without his permission again. Either way, it was clearly his problem and not hers, and yet it obviously applied to her in one way or another.
"Yeah, I didn't even realize what was going on until I got into that fight," he explained. "But I didn't heal, that's for sure." And boy, was he paying for it now.
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Not to say that the bad mood wasn't still there, of course, but it was hard to be bitchy about it when he was trying to push through it and do the hero thing like always. She mirrored his movement with a kind of begrudging exasperation, folding her arms on the table and leaning forward. This felt stupid. Everything about this felt stupid, and it was made worse by the fact that it was because of her inability to tell Peter from Clone #584 or whatever apart.
"I'll come by your room tonight and heal you and we can see if it's better or something then. Maybe Aguilar was just messing with you or something, or maybe it's something worse. We can find out one way or the other." A sigh followed and her lips pursed into a narrow, unhappy line. "And we can try out this code word thing. I guess. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. But it's still stupid."
All right, so maybe she was being just slightly petulant, but who could blame her. It was kind of a mood-crusher to realize that she sucked this much.
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He was relieved when Claire suggested that she could come and heal him tonight before he even had to ask. He knew that she would do just about anything for him, but that didn't mean that he didn't appreciate it. He quirked a smile. "Thanks a lot. It feels kind of weird that I'm the nurse and yet you're the one healing me, but..." Powers sort of turned everything upside-down, didn't they? Still, he wished he could do more. It felt like he was always one step behind in this place, and his injuries meant that he wouldn't be able to head up to the experiment rooms tonight.
Even if Claire was still calling it stupid, she was at least asking for suggestions for the code word, which was a step in the right direction. Still, it was hard to think of something that was both obscure and yet had some meaning. He realized it could be something completely random, but it seemed like it'd be easier to remember if it at least held some importance.
"Anyway, is there a name or a phrase from your childhood that would work, maybe?" Peter even considered using Claire's dog's name, but that seemed too well-known.
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And with that, she dismissed the subject. It'd get dealt with, but they should hammer out the whole code word thing for future use now anyway. Especially since she'd be heading down the same path to the same exact hallway tonight and run the risk of the same stupid situation happening. This time, she wouldn't make the same mistake. But the double had known enough of how to act like Peter that Claire couldn't help wondering. Was it really going to make a difference? She tried to push the thoughts of pessimism from her mind but it was kind of hard to ignore.
"I don't know, though, uh … I mean, there's Mr. Muggles?" She purses her lips, looking thoughtful for a long moment then straightening up. "Wait," she reached into the front of her uniform shirt and fished out the dog tags, holding hers up for Peter to see. "We have these. I mean, maybe not forever, but for now shouldn't it work?"
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Peter smiled to himself when Claire came out with the same idea that he'd briefly thought of. Still, he thought it was something that was too easy to guess -- it wasn't like the name of the Bennet family dog was a secret by any means.
The dog tags, on the other hand -- that might work. Peter carefully grabbed for his own, taking in the number there. "These are personalized and I'm guessing each number is unique. There's no way that a copy of me would have it, right?" Unless this whole thing had been fabricated by the institute, in which case they could give his clone an identical pair...
This was all just too ridiculous. Peter sighed, resisting the urge to lean back in his wheelchair. That would not end well. "How about... a nickname you used to be called, something that no one would ever know. Or just an uncommon word that you think is cool."
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A headache. That was for sure. However, his next suggestion considered her mood to lighten just slightly at a memory. Something she hadn't thought about the whole time she was in the institute since she'd been busy being pissed at her father for partnering up with Sylar of all people. A quiet kind of smile appeared on her face briefly but disappeared as quickly as it had come and she cleared her throat, looking up from the table at Peter's face.
"Clairebear. My dad calls me that all the time. What about you? Did you and Nathan ever have a pet or something? A favorite … I don't know. Football team or something?"
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At the mention of a football team, Peter's mind immediately went to baseball and the grief that he had had with Nathan because of that whole issue. Probably not the best thing to use, if only because it was just going to bring back bad memories when he really should be worrying about his brother.
The pet thing, though... That wasn't something he talked about often, but it would definitely work. "Yeah, we had a dog when I was younger. Her name was Izzie." The last time he'd even talked about that dog was when his father had died, so... also not the best memories, but he thought it would work a little better.
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"Izzie. Great. So, code word achieved." It was a short, curt response but it was all she was offering so that she didn't snap something rude that she'd regret later. It wasn't Peter's fault that she had mistaken someone else for him, or rather, that she'd been totally fooled by something pretending to be him. But it was still something she felt like taking out on him because that's what she did when she got like this.
And when it came down to it, thinking about her dad had done more harm than good to her mood. It might have been a positive at first, remembering the better moments, but it was all sourly tinged by the knowledge that while she was in here, he was out there working with Sylar or something. Or however that worked with the whole … timeline weirdness. It was still a headache for her, even if she'd come to terms with it because of what it meant for being able to kill Sylar.
Her gaze flickered hastily around the room, giving her a distracted appearance, but it seemed like lunch was wrapping up. So, she got to her feet.
"I'll come see you tonight. Try not to get yourself in too much trouble before then." And this time, she'd just go into his room instead of trusting someone waltzing around the same hallway. Augh. How could she be that stupid?
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However, it looked like they were just on time, since the shift was ending. He hadn't managed to eat much, but between the pain it caused and the fact that it would be rubbing his better privileges in Claire's face, he hadn't really planned on it in the first place. He could always make up for it at dinner.
"Right. And it's M24, don't forget." If she showed up at the right room, then the chances of her running into some clone wasn't likely. He doubted that a copy of him could imitate his wounds right now, either.
"But don't worry," he said with a shake of his head. "It'd be pretty hard for me to get into any trouble when I'm like... this." He made a small gesture with his hand to the wheelchair, and then waved to his niece, waiting for a soldier to come collect him.
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